Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan will skip an an event on Wednesday with President Obama and other Nobel Prize winners, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
“Unfortunately, Bob Dylan will not be at the White House today. So everyone can relax,” Earnest said during a press briefing Wednesday.
He declined to provide details about why Dylan decided not to attend the special gathering in the Oval Office.
Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature on Oct. 13 “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” and has kept a low profile since. The 75-year-old singer told the Swedish Academy earlier this month he will also skip the prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden next month, when he is supposed to pick up his prize.
Obama, who awarded Dylan the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, was quick to congratulate the singer on his Nobel prize last month.
“Congratulations to one of my favorite poets, Bob Dylan, on a well-deserved Nobel,” the president tweeted.